New year, new me - how to simplify your finances in 2022.

New year, new team piccys, same passion for finance and oat lattes xoxo

A new year is upon us and while it may not seem like there is much we can control in this weird new world we’re wading through, there is one thing we can control - our finances.

While it may not always feel like it (particularly after Christmas which is always a strain on the bank account) with a little discipline, routine and some achievable goals, we actually can improve our financial position, even if we’ve always dismissed ourselves as being poor at money management.

Because we want you to have your greatest financial year yet, we’ve collated our team’s top tips for simplifying your finances, so when you’re feeling overwhelmed with the chaos of the outside world, you can feel calm in the comfort of knowing your finances are under control.

Tip one: make debt your focus

We’ve said it once and it’s likely we’ll say it again; if you have debt, you don’t have savings. It can be a little deflating to hear, but the sooner we come around to this realisation the better the outcome for future us. For this reason, instead of focusing on building up your savings while you still have thousands of dollars in personal debt, we want you to smash that down as rapidly as possible and worry about building up your savings down the track once your debt is cleared.

Tip two: automate everything

Automation is an easy way to make your life and your finances more seamless. Start by automating your bills by setting up direct debits on your accounts - this means you’ll never be stung with a late fee for missing a payment and it also means you don’t need to carry around the mental load of worrying you’ll forget to pay something.

The next thing we encourage you to automate is your investing, which our pals at Superhero make unbelievably easy.

All you need to do is:

1. Log in to your Superhero account

2. In your Superhero Wallet you will see your individual Superhero BSB and Account Number

3. Log in to your banking account and set up your Superhero Account as a payee

4. Set up a recurring payment to your Superhero account (e.g. weekly, fortnightly or monthly)

You’ll also be pinged with a notification each time you receive a deposit into your Superhero account, to remind you of your brilliant work and to keep you on top of your debits.

What’s so brilliant about automated investing is that you don’t really notice the money leaving your account and it means you don’t need to think about manually investing on a recurring date in your calendar. When it’s left to us, sometimes we can get a little lazy and forget our strategy of regular investing, but when it’s automated it takes all of the thinking out of the process and keeps you accountable.

Tip three: ditch the paper

Just as we hardly ever use cash anymore, paper is almost a thing of the past. Make money management easier by going paperless and organising a hub on your laptop that holds all of the info you need. Whack invoices, bank statements, bills, petrol receipts and so on all into this folder so they’re easy to access when it comes to tax time.

Tip four: face your finances head on

Often when we talk to our own friends about our podcast, they say they’re too afraid to listen because money just isn’t their thing - they’re not good at it and they don’t want to listen to a whole podcast about something that makes them so anxious. We get it, but the truth is, our money situation will never change if we’re too afraid to face it head on, acknowledge our downfalls and create a plan out of debt or towards savings/whatever your money goal is. The longer you refuse to look at your bank account, the more out of control things can get and the more work future you will have to do to clean up your mess. This year, say goodbye to fear around money and rip off that band aid - we promise you once that scary part is done and you have a plan, the path to financial freedom will be far easier than you think.

A HUGE thank you to our friends at Superhero for helping us bring this blog post to life. Learn more about them here